Wednesday, April 20, 2011

In the eyes of God

I've been praying for a friend who has serious mental health issues and who brings her struggles to God in the same way I bring mine. I don't know much more about how she understands God than that, and I've been struggling to understand what it could mean for someone like her to be a Christian. As well as being paranoid and consequently terrified by just about everything, she also struggles intellectually to understand all kinds of simple things. All of that has made it hard for me to pray for her as I've been limited by my ideas of what God could do for and with her. I've simply been praying that God would give her freedom from fear and contentment with her life.

Then a few days ago something dawned on me. For God, the distance He has to condescend to communicate from His infinity to my boundedness is practically identical to the distance He has to condescend to my friend. He is so far above us, so utterly Other, that the huge differences I see between my friend and myself pale into insignificance. I realised that God can use her in His service just as easily and effectively as He can use me.

The way I pray for her, as well as the way I pray for the children in my church's Sunday School, has changed profoundly as a result.